Gasometer explosion in Neunkirchen (Saar)

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During the gasometer explosion in Neunkirchen (Saar) on February 10, 1933, shortly after 6 p.m., the 72 meter high gasometer of the Neunkirchen ironworks exploded . The accident left 68 dead and around 190 injured and devastated large parts of the hut area and 65 residential buildings in the immediate vicinity. Further damage occurred throughout the city center. Ultimately, the question of guilt could not be clarified beyond doubt. The explosion attracted international attention and led to a large volume of aid and donations. The grave field at the main cemetery in Scheib , where the dead from the explosion were buried, was a novelty at the time. It extended over the Catholic and Protestant part of the cemetery, so that the victims could be denominationally separated according to the custom of the time and yet buried together.

gasometer

Gasometer of the same type in Neunkirchen (until 2020)

The disk gas tank company MAN for storing coke oven gas was approved on 23 September 1930 and built in 1931 to replace an old, smaller Gasometer, which was demolished in August 1930th The new gasometer was polygonal and had a height of 70.5 meters with four accessible floors. Its diameter was 49 meters. It held 120,000 cubic meters of gas to supply the region. At the time of the explosion, it was 13% full, i.e. around 15,000 cubic meters or around 8 meters high. The construction type was considered to be particularly safe due to a special safety disk that changed its height with the gas pressure and was in use worldwide with over 250 units. Before the gasometer disaster in Neunkirchen, there was only one explosion on February 26, 1926 in Posen ( Poland ), in which 43 people were slightly injured. Another container in Danzig had to be shut down in the winter of 1928/1929 due to technical problems.

explosion

On Friday, February 10, 1933, cleaning and repair work on the gasometer of the Neunkircher ironworks in Niederneunkirchen on what was then Saarbrücker Strasse (today's Bildstocker Strasse) had been in progress for about two weeks. The actual welding work was already finished that day. At the time of the explosion, workers were busy adjusting two flanges that did not match due to a slight difference in height. The associated work with a cutting torch triggered the explosion.

Shortly after 6 p.m., the 72-meter-high gasometer exploded. At first there was a dull bang of a pre-explosion. After that was a five-meter wide and 30 to 50 meters high engraving flame to see that flared up at the Gasometer and brought the 4.5-millimeter-thick outer wall glow. After five minutes, the gasometer exploded, causing an earthquake-like shock and a deafening sound of explosion that could be heard within a radius of up to 200 kilometers. The explosion created a force that wreaked havoc several hundred meters away and created a huge field of rubble. The coking plant was on fire on the smelter's premises and the nearby benzene plant was at risk. Immediately after the explosion, the population began to flee in panic and fled the inner city to the outskirts, and in some cases also into the woods, as further explosions were feared. In the late evening, the authorities reported that there was no longer any danger.

Rescue work

Immediately after the accident, the smelter's sirens sounded medical and fire alarms. A medical column of the Red Cross had a training evening near the accident that day and was only eight minutes later with 50 men at the scene of the accident. The plant fire brigade was represented by 58 men, while the municipal fire brigade of Neunkirchen was in action with 150 men. The rescue of the injured and seriously injured began, who were initially cared for on site and then taken to the hospitals in the vicinity. The receiving hospitals were in Neunkirchen, Ottweiler , Sulzbach and Fischbach-Camphausen . In the course of the evening, medical columns from neighboring towns moved in. Since the telephone connection was interrupted, the columns, alarmed by the explosion, set off on their own. The smoke column visible over Niederneunkirchen in the last evening light showed the rescue workers the direction. Just one hour after the explosion, around 200 paramedics were on duty, at 9 p.m. there were more than 600. The column leader from Neunkirchen took over the coordination.

The fire brigade managed to cool the burning benzene containers by sprinkling them with water to such an extent that further explosions could be prevented. However, some of the accident sites were not yet accessible. In the first few days after the explosion, fire brigades from all over the Saar area were on duty, which were granted police powers due to the size of the area affected. On the night of the accident, 50 dead were rescued and 100 seriously injured were rescued. All injured were rescued by the evening of the next day.

In the days that followed, emergency shelters were set up and the injured were treated in the surrounding hospitals. A large number of uninvolved people, relatives, but also so-called “disaster tourists” came to Neunkirchen. Their number on the Sunday following the accident is given in the press as over 100,000, some of whom hindered the clean-up work as spectators.

Damage balance

The gasometer explosion devastated large parts of Niederneunkirchen, a total of 65 houses were completely destroyed. 167 families with 700 people were made homeless . The houses on Saarbrücker Strasse were hardest hit; they have been completely destroyed. Further serious damage occurred in the Schlawerie , Oberschmelz, in Sinnerthal and in the city center of Neunkirchen. Parts of the ceiling collapsed in the occupied hall of the Corona cinema and in the Levy department store, injuring several visitors. The window panes were broken in the entire inner city area. The power lines on Saarbrücker Strasse were destroyed over 500 meters. The overhead line of the Neunkirchen tram was destroyed in seven places, two tram units were also damaged. Railway operations also came to a standstill, as parts of the railway line were covered with rubble, and the entrance hall at Neunkirchen Central Station was damaged.

The property damage was estimated at 80 million Swiss francs . The number of deaths was given on February 18, 1933 as 62, that of the injured as 191, including 88 seriously injured, the brochure "Terrible days of the city of Neunkirchen" (1933) names 65 dead and 160 injured. Today it is assumed that 68 have died.

Funeral service

Grave field at the main cemetery Scheib

The church memorial service took place on February 14, 1933 in the Catholic Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Neunkirchen. The funeral speech was given by Definitor Eisvogel.

The funeral service then continued on the Lower Market. Guests of honor were seated on the stairs of the Karl Ferdinand House: Franz von Papen , Vice Chancellor of the German Reich and Reich Commissioner of Prussia , as representative of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and the Reich Government, further Reich Labor Minister Franz Seldte , Baron von Maaß on behalf of the Minister Alfred Hugenberg and Ambassador Carl von Schubert . Mayor Georg Blank , the ministers of the government commission, Countess von Sierstorpff and other representatives of the Stumm family as well as representatives of the ironworks and the other Saarwerke were present from the Saar area . Politicians from the government had come from France, including Labor Minister Joseph Paganon as a representative of President Albert Lebrun , representatives of the French coal and steel industry and the French customs officers of the Saar region and a delegation from Strasbourg with Mayor Charles Hueber . Other delegations came from Luxembourg and Belgium . Count Kageneck acted as the representative of the former German emperor .

After mourning speeches by theologians Ernst Stoltenhoff as a representative of the Protestants and Auxiliary Bishop Antonius Mönch as a representative of the Catholics, a funeral procession started towards the main cemetery in Scheib . At the main cemetery, the 56 dead that had been recovered so far were buried in a shared collective grave, which extended partly to the Protestant and partly to the Catholic cemetery. The wall in between was torn down. The tomb still exists today and is looked after and maintained by the city administration.

The seriously injured people who died after February 14th were also buried here.

Causes and question of guilt

Immediately after the disaster, the Deutsche Gasgesellschaft commissioned an expert report after the public prosecutor and the trade council had started their investigations. The investigation was subsequently discontinued as no violations of the safety regulations and no misconduct by the workers could be found. Regular checks were also carried out.

The accident was attributed to a technical error. During repair work on the gas-free bypass pipe, which was properly separated from the gas inlet by a closed slide valve and from the gas outlet by a blind disk, gas had apparently entered the bypass tube through a leak in the slide valve or on the blind disk without being noticed. Sparks from the welding work or a hammer blow could then have triggered the accident. The first smaller explosion could have torn a hole in the gasometer, "so that escaping gas triggered the actual severe explosion of the gas container". This first reason was controversially discussed among experts.

Another version assumes that the blind disk was driven into the pipe behind it during the pre-explosion. You then tore open the corner bend and smashed it. From there the flame was nourished. Some versions also assumed an oil gas explosion , which was probably not possible. Another version saw the cause in a malfunction of the disk, the functionality of which was impaired by the first explosion. This either sank down or had holes through which the gas-air mixture formed. However, there was no universally accepted final explanation of the cause of the explosion. The MAN company dealt with the accident at a works meeting on May 2, 1933. As a result, new guidelines were drawn up that came into force in 1935 and were valid until 1956.

public perception

Postage stamp from the Saar area. First edition: June 1, 1933

The great public participation was also reflected in the donations. Reich President Hindenburg made 100,000 Reichsmarks available. Numerous private donations also followed, and benefit events were held throughout the German Reich, including in the Berlin Philharmonic and the Berlin Gloria-Palast . Two years before the " Saar vote ", the large amount of donations from the Reich was also to be seen as a "political gesture."

The postal administration of the Saar area issued three special stamps that show a picture of the scene of the accident and differ in color. These are the only stamps with a reference to Neunkirchen that have been issued so far. Saar Minister Bartholomäus Koßmann had an aid organization set up to look after the citizens who had become homeless. On the initiative of Countess Sierstorpff, a new settlement was built, the so-called “Explosionssiedlung” or “Red Settlement”, which is located at today's Storchenplatz.

Not only people from the Saar region, the German Reich and France took part in the disaster. Pope Pius XI donated 5000 marks and expressed his condolences to Franz Rudolf Bornewasser , the Bishop of Trier.

Literary processing

Gustav Regulator used the gasometer explosion as an exposition of his novel Im Kreuzfeuer .

The explosion was processed by three local artists. Gustav Regulator described the explosion in his anti-fascist propaganda novel Im Kreuzfeuer , which takes place in the period before the Saar referendum. The Comintern -man Willi Münzenberg sent the writer "after the Saar, to gather material for a book he was in the campaign of 1935 could throw". The result was a "Saar novel" that also addresses the accident:

"Where did the money come from? Didn't the Wolff over there give him one? The same money he saved on the workers. Werner laughed angrily. What if he had set his gasometer in the woods instead of in the middle of the workers' houses? Quite right, then maybe he could have bought Adolf less. "

Regulator later distanced himself from the novel with the advice "never to mash up art with party propaganda".

Otto Lück , a rector from Neunkirchen, dedicated a play in four acts entitled Gasometer to the explosion , which was premiered in February 1934 by an acting ensemble of the Catholic elementary school community. It is not known whether the play had other performances.

Fritz Kühner, a poet and publisher from Saarbrücken, wrote the poem The Victims of Labor , which was strongly influenced by Expressionism and in six stanzas "depicts the powerlessness of people in the face of the technical dimension and the catastrophes that arise from it". Although neither Neunkirchen nor the gasometer is mentioned, the poem makes clear reference to the events of 1933. The poem appeared in 1934 in Kühner 's book Saarbricker Herzdriggerde. Songs and poems about the battle against the Saar .

literature

  • Stefan Blasius: Days of horror in the city of Neunkirchen. The gasometer explosion at the Neunkirchen ironworks on February 10, 1933 . 2nd Edition. Pirrot GmbH, Dudweiler 2003, ISBN 3-930714-85-X .
  • Josef Kintzinger (Hrsg.): Horrible days of the city of Neunkirchen . Neunkirchener Zeitung, Neunkirchen (Saar) - (without year probably 1933).
  • Bernd Loch: The gasometer explosion of 1933 . In: Rainer Knauf, Christof Trepesch (Ed.): Neunkircher Stadtbuch . District town Neunkirchen, 2005, ISBN 3-00-015932-0 .
  • Wolfgang Melnyk, Horst Schwenk: 75 years ago: Horrible days in Neunkirchen - When the gasometer exploded . Ed .: Historical Association of the City of Neunkirchen e. V. Neunkirchen (Saar) 2008.

Web links

  • Wolfgang Melnyk: Gasometer explosion in Neunkirchen. Postage stamps commemorate Black Friday 1933. Part 1 and Part 2
  • Germany. In a second of time! - English-language film from 1933 about the gasometer explosion in Neunkirchen - Pathé Gazette 1933 - 2:09 min on Youtube

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bernd Loch: The gasometer explosion of 1933 . 2005, p. 287 .
  2. ↑ a b Bernd Loch: The gasometer explosion of 1933 . 2005, p. 283 .
  3. ↑ a b Bernd Loch: The gasometer explosion of 1933 . 2005, p. 284 .
  4. ↑ a b Wolfgang Melnyk, Horst Schwenk: 75 years ago: Horrible days in Neunkirchen - When the gasometer exploded . 2008, p. 18 .
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Melnyk, Horst Schwenk: 75 years ago: Horrible days in Neunkirchen - When the gasometer exploded . 2008, p. 25 .
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Melnyk, Horst Schwenk: 75 years ago: Horrible days in Neunkirchen - When the gasometer exploded . 2008, p. 26 .
  7. ↑ a b Bernd Loch: The gasometer explosion of 1933 . 2005, p. 285 .
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Melnyk, Horst Schwenk: 75 years ago: Horrible days in Neunkirchen - When the gasometer exploded . 2008, p. 34 .
  9. ↑ a b c d e Bernd Loch: The gasometer explosion of 1933 . 2005, p. 286 .
  10. ↑ Josef Kintzinger (Ed.): Terrible days of the city of Neunkirchen . Neunkirchener Zeitung, Neunkirchen (Saar), p. 15–17 (no year probably 1933).
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Melnyk, Horst Schwenk: 75 years ago: Horrible days in Neunkirchen - When the gasometer exploded . 2008, p. 15 .
  12. ^ Bertha Countess von Franken-Sierstorpff, née Baroness von Stumm-Halberg. Biography , Count Harry Kessler: The Diary 1880-1937 . Cotta, 2004, ISBN 978-3-7681-9814-1 ( page 1115 ).
  13. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Melnyk: Gasometer explosion in Neunkirchen. Postage stamps commemorate Black Friday 1933. Part 2. Historischer Verein Neunkirchen, January 11, 2006, accessed on April 12, 2012 .
  14. ↑ Peter Gitzinger: 111 places in Saarland that you have to see, Volume 2 . Hermann-Josef Emons Verlag, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-89705-886-6 , p. 104 .
  15. ^ Bernhard Krajewski: Local history chats: February 10, 1933 - a black Friday . In: Neunkircher Stadtanzeiger . No. 6 , February 9, 1983.
  16. ↑ Bernd Loch: The gasometer explosion of 1933 . 2005, p. 288 .
  17. ↑ a b Wolfgang Melnyk, Horst Schwenk: 75 years ago: Horrible days in Neunkirchen - When the gasometer exploded . 2008, p. 71 f .
  18. ↑ a b Bernd Loch: The gasometer explosion of 1933 . 2005, p. 289 .
  19. ↑ Gustav Regulator: The ear of Malchus. A life story. Stroemfeld, Frankfurt am Main / Basel 2007, ISBN 3-87877-442-7 , p. 276.
  20. ↑ Gustav Regulator: In the cross fire. A Saar novel. Editions du Carrefour, Paris 1934, p. 19.
  21. ^ Alfred Diwersy: Gustav Regulator. Pictures and documents. Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag, Saarbrücken 1983, ISBN 3-921646-66-9 , p. 51.
  22. ↑ a b Bernd Loch: The gasometer explosion of 1933 . 2005, p. 290 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 20 ′ 45.5 ″  N , 7 ° 9 ′ 42 ″  E

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 21, 2012 .